1. Field
Apparatuses and methods consistent with exemplary embodiments relate to a backlight unit and a display device including the same to improve luminous efficacy and reduce screen defects.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, a variety of display devices have been developed to reduce thickness, weight, and power consumption.
Representative examples of such display devices include liquid crystal display (LCD) devices which display images using electric and optical properties of liquid crystals.
An LCD device includes a liquid crystal display panel to optically display an image and a backlight unit (BLU) to supply light to the liquid crystal display panel.
In the related art, a cold cathode fluorescent lamp (CCFL) is widely used as a light source of the backlight unit (BLU). However, recently, a light emitting diode (LED) having advantages in terms of properties such as weight, thickness, power consumption, and lifespan is generally used.
The light emitting diode may be disposed at a side of a light guide plate and emits light toward the light guide plate. In this case, the emitted light may not be entirely incident upon the light guide plate and thus leaks.
Accordingly, in the related art, as shown in FIG. 1, to prevent light leakage, a reflector 3 to reflect leaked light is required between the light guide plate 1 and the light emitting diode 2.
However, although the reflector 3 is disposed between the light guide plate 1 and the light emitting diode 2, light irradiated upon an edge of the light guide plate 1 is reflected, thereby forming a bright section 4 of a display device and causing screen defects.
The screen defects become more serious when a bezel width W, which is a distance from an end portion of an active area of the display device to a peripheral edge of the display device, as shown in FIG. 1, becomes considerably narrower or wider.